Darius Rucker: ‘If It’s Not a Country Song, I Don’t Want to Play It’

Crossover artist Darius Rucker was met with a lot of naysayers when he decided to try his hand at country music, but the singer says he wants nothing more than to be country. Now that he's been in the genre for years, he's had several successful singles and he credits that to his fans seeing how much he wanted this.

"I think the main reason was that people realized how real it was for me," Rucker explains to Dan Rather. "It wasn't about money, it wasn't about, you know, trying to be a superstar. I was just going to do this in the basement with my buddy's. It was about the music. I wanted to be country. I wanted to play country music."

Rucker released 'Don't Think I Don't Think About It' as his first single as a solo country act on his album 'Learn To Live' and the song was his first No. 1 as a country artist. The second single, 'It Won't Be Like This For Long' also made its way to the top of the charts. What do the two songs have in common? A family theme.

"Country music today is so much about family and that’s what the songs that seem to work for me are the songs about my family," he explains. "The songs that are really huge for me are all songs about family and about living just a regular great life with the people that you love. That was my main thing when I started that if it’s not country, I don’t want to play it. I don’t want to take pop songs and put fiddle on it and call it a country song. If it’s not a country song, I don’t want to play it."

The full interview with Darius Rucker and Dan Rather will air April 21 on AXS TV at 8 pm ET.